Exploding Minds

Thursday, 12 September 2013

Hello..today I am going to write about a DIY craft which I did on my phone cover yesterday to make it more attractive without spending money as usual me being such a miser....
I have a Samsung phone with which came a back cover which is transparent, plain and colorless. with time it got dirty also. So I did a little bit of doodling on it which was nice but I destroyed the nice effect by coloring the back with dark colors which took away the nice effect. It is actually a failed effort but what I can tell you are some tips to make it working without spending much money.. :-)
So heres what I did and it would be followed with tips....
Step 1: Draw doodles on your plain back cover with permanent marker or else color will bleed into your hands later.I had black only in my store so its all black doodle.TIP 1: Try using sharp tip pen to make design more clear .TIP 2: Using colorful markers would definitely add more dimension to the cover.TIP 3: You can make personalized doodles. I am from tourism industry so mine says TRAVEL....

Step 2: Now with color that will stay on plastic , color the inner side of the cover. Now my disaster is that light and bright colors that I had were all dried up so I had to paint in dark colors but the overall effect was very dark as the colors hid the doodles and they were not clearly visible.

TIP 4: Use bright and light colours to paint.

Step 3: Cut a white paper which will fit inside your cover. Cut the various holes for camera and LED and insert the paper in the cover and put the cover on the phone. Transformation complete...

TIP 5: Dont forget the paper or else the colors may adhere to your phone too.

This type of transformation can be done on white phones and as the permanent marker can be easily removed with thinner or acetone so there is no worry of going wrong. This transformation is a good option for someone who wants a personalized touch for their phone and someone like me who wanted a new cover...

This is my final phone cover transformation. I removed all the coloring because my doodles were no where to be seen. Its kinda okay for me and next time I will follow from my tips as mistakes make us more experienced. :-)

Monday, 4 March 2013

Hello everyone . This cold here has not allowed me to do anything crafty and that's why I was not able to upload anything. I know this is no reason for my laziness ..:-)
So a house warming party at my friend's place has forced me to do something and fight my laziness... Thank god she moved to new house. For her house warming I wanted to give her something which I would make myself so that the care and love spreads to her new home. I really like gifts that people make themselves as it shows that the sender cares and has taken pains to gift u something. The economic value doesn't matter. So this I always apply when I gift something to my near & dear ones.
So for her I made a wall hanging with the famous quote of "Eat, Drink & be merry".
I made this from a simple black & white print out as I wanted to colour it myself to give a feel of handmade.
So if u want to make this for gifting or for personal decor things u would need are

A printout of your favourite quote, picture or anything that you would want to display

Colours(I used water colours)

Paint brush

Cardboard

4 strips of cloth

Glue

Scissor or cutter

Ruler

Needle & thread(matching to cloth strips)

Transparency sheet

Some sparkles(optional)

Embroidery thread.(optional)

Lets Start

1. If your object to be framed is already coloured than u can skip this step. But as mine is black & white so I coloured it and also the background.

2. Add some detailing. This is optional as mine looked too simple so I did some straight stitch on one alphabet of each word and also added some sparkle.

3. Once your framing object is perfect to be displayed paste it on the piece of cardboard bigger than the size of paper. You need to leave space on all sides and it has to be same. As I am big recycling supporter I have used a old box in which my hand blender came. U can find the name of company also. Ohhh am I advertising it, I need payment for that :-).

4. Now from the left over card board cut strips that could overlap the left space on the base of photo.Cut the strips diagonally at the ends so that they fit together.

5. Take strips of cloth and cover these cardboard pieces with them using glue.

6. Now put a transparent sheet on the base and align these fabric covered side sticks on all four sides. hold it tightly and with matching colour thread sew along the sides so that the whole thing stays together.

7. Now on the back side place a hoop of strong thread at top side and paste a black paper all over it to cover the thread.
8. Give the final touch by cutting any extra paper and thread and you have your master piece.
So now you home made frame is ready and it is waiting to be on the wall... In this way you can frame anything be it your favourite quote(just colour print it...it will make the work easy) or any photo using some old leftover fabric and cardboard of something you recently shopped( shoeboxes...ohh gives another reason for shopping :-)...
Take care

Thursday, 25 October 2012

Hello everyone....
On a table at dinner along with food other things which are necessary is a napkin and in India a toothpick. So I added these both things and TADA...

This on a table looks stylish also and is of course easy to place without the fear of the napkin flying around or tooth pick getting missed.( And it is a decoration in BUDGET.. a important thing for me)
So we can make it very easily. Things that you would need are

Paper napkin/ Tissue paper

Toothpick

and your hands...

Lets start
Step 1. Fold your tissue paper in a way that it becomes a rectangle of desired shape

Step 2. Fold one end of rectangle into a triangle .

Step 4. Now fold the rectangle tail in zig zag form to form a accordion.

Step 5. Now hold the object from middle and insert toothpick in center.

Now you will get your napkin +toothpick and you can also use it to assign names to the seat. Write name on a thick paper and attach in front or any customized message can also be attached on the front side.

Monday, 12 March 2012

Looking at my dinning table I thought of adding a little color in the colorless area so I added a little red colour on my dinning table.

I have used a wrapping paper and made a six pointed star and simply put it under the protective plastic cover.

You can learn how to make the star from here and then simply cut the sides into any shapes to get a beautiful shape. I have round the edges as my dinning table is round in shape. you can use any type of paper or piece of cloth of any color that matches or contrasts your dinning table or walls.
Here's the Before & After.

Friday, 9 March 2012

Valentine is long over and other festivals have come and gone but todays post is about a gift I gave on valentines but it is so versatile that it can be customised to suit any festival or occasion.
My inspiration is a wonderful site ohhappyday.com
You can check the above link to know exactly what we are going to make.... BOXES
If you can find those cute little boxes in shops around you, then great you can buy them(but only if they are cheap.. .... dots means buy them if they are really cheap) or else we can make them from shoe boxes, sweets boxes or form box or carton made with little thick material which can hold its shape.
Here I have used a shoe box.
Other material needed are Scissor, Glue, Paper, Decorating Paper, Pen/Pencil, Ruler.
1) On your cardboard make pattern for the box and its lid. Keep in mind as you are makin a square all sides would be equal. If length of your box is "a" then length for your lid would be "a+" where "+" is equal to thickness of your cardboard. Make a center square and then on all four sides make same length squares for the box and for the lid make a center square and the for the flaps the length has to be halved.

Cut these out.
2) Now cover these were normal white paper or any waste paper as this will not be visible.

3)After covering the base now paste flaps together with pieces of paper.

Once you have joined all the flaps your box is ready and similarly make the lid.
4)Now the next step is to cover the box with decorating paper from all sides.

Now the final step...

5)Making the accordion message card. It is very simple to make you just have to take a long strip of paper of width little less then"a"(hope you remember our"a" & "a+"). The length depends on the message you want to wrtite on it. Mine went a little long as I wanted to draw many things. you can write or message or display a story connected with the occasion. You can do anything on that strip but do not forget to fold it in accordion form and paste one end to lid and the last end to box(Be sure to leave a little flap at the top to adhere the strip to the lid of the box.). Do you see the ribbon in the corner I have used it to tie around my box.

Tie the box and then give it to your loved ones and see the expression on their faces as the message opens up.

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

While planning for a party a very important thing is what to serve. A lot of time, energy and thinking goes in deciding the menu. It has to be according to guests and the occasion and also important thing is the availability of ingredients in the market. For me it is a very big issue because I am not good at making choices and that to for other people is a very big task for me. So if I put in so much effort in deciding the menu and then cooking those dishes then I always make a point of making a menu and also giving some different names to my dishes. This makes a very nice impact on guest and the party will also have a long stay in their memory lane as they would have put in a little effort on reading the names of dishes they are being served. Recently in a party at my home I made the following menu card.

Here the paper I have used is A4 compuetr sheets as the invitees were family members only.
You can use better quality papers and for a more beautiful presentation you can use papers that match your table cover,mine is transparent that's why I have used white.
The above menu card is very easy to make
You need...'Paper, scissor, sketch pens.
1. Choose a paper that matches your table cloth
2. Fold it in half.
3. Draw a spoon, plate and knife on the two overlapping halves so that when you open the card the figure reappears.
4. Cut the front cover as shown in second figure(Cut from middle outlining the plate and fork & spoon.)
5. You can colour your spoon,plate and fork like mine or you can also paste these utensils cutouts from papers that matches your crockery.
6. Now on the front plate you can write MENU CARD or some interesting lines that you and your family speaks before any meal or when you call someone for meal in your native language or like the ones I have used "Served fresh with love".
7. On the inner plate write your menu . All the dishes in the order they would be served. Don't forget to give new innovative names to your dishes.
What was on my MENU CARD..
Starting with....Veggies loaded hot & sour soup
Cheese pocket with roasted capsi dip
Salad roll
Orange Punch
Hongkong veggie delight
spinach, corn & paneer rice
Hot gulab jamuns with vanilla cake.
I made everyone on the table read their menu card before eating any of the dishes.. Well it was kind of fun as they having a hard time in reading these long names and then by praising for the dishes in which they again had to repeat those names.
I found it very nice during small family gatherings as everyone is connected to the whole process and also gives a personal touch.

You can use the above figures as the template to make your menu card. You can search the net for different styles of crockery on net and use the outlines the make them on your card.